All of the installer issues that have been reported to me seem to have been ironed out, so without any more delay here's Chax 2.0 for 10.5! A new addition since the last beta is the return of the always on top feature. It's back in its previous place at the top of the Window menu. As a reminder, not all of the features previously available in Chax 1.5 have been restored in this version. It's going to take some time, but many features that were previously available will be coming back as I continue to work. Finally, thanks to Adam Betts for making a great-looking update to the Chax icon!

Enjoy!

43 comments:

mrtew at 2007-11-17 17:33:04 -0500

Hey I can't wait for all the old features to be re-added..... especially putting the tabs back where you had them at the bottom and the ability to re-size the window smaller than the default and remember it's position. I hate the huge fat iChat window and Chax made it nice and slim. Also a new feature I'd like would be to combine the AIM and Bonjour buddy lists into one list..... the two separate little windows is stupid

Cooner at 2007-11-17 19:58:57 -0500

Hooray! Looking good, glad to see it's out of beta, and glad you've got it working stand-alone without having to install SIMBL anymore. Also, the new icon looks nice. :) Good luck continuing work on it. Just for the record, the feature I'm waiting to see reinstated is the proper display and sorting of nicknames in the Buddies list. (Apple's "short name" implementation is very inconsistent.) I know that's probably a pretty low-priority feature, but I just wanted to get that mention in here again. ;) P.S. Just finally sent a Paypal donation. Not much, but something, I hope. :)

Chelsey at 2007-11-18 16:41:48 -0500

Thanks for the awesome update to CHAX. The icon rocks. I have been reading all the comments, and keeping up with the updates, and I can tell that you all are working ur asses off trying to upgrade ICHAT with the old features that were offered on the TIGER versions of CHAX. I know it probably takes time... So, thanks for everything. I have no idea if you can do this, but is it ever possible to find a way to integrate yahoo with Ichat/aim? Just wondering. Thanks for everything, and take care.

Dan Arel at 2007-11-19 01:43:52 -0500

thanks for keeping chax alive! its a huge part of my osx experience. a lot of people on here just keep asking for more and more features, but all i have to say is chax is amazing. and whatever you want to add to it is fine by me. but i love that its still alive after 10.5!

Shane at 2007-11-19 03:42:12 -0500

Just testing out the log viewer, and I can't get the search bar to work properly. I can type in it and it seems to filter out the irrelevant conversations, but it never shows the relevant ones.

Alessio at 2007-11-19 08:19:38 -0500

FEATURE REQUEST: UNIFIED CONTACT LISTS. Now that we can login with multiple accounts we have 3, 4, n contact list windows. Wouldn't it be great if we could have them all on a single window? AIM, Bonjour, .Mac buddies in a single window would unclutter and render everything much more Mac style :-) Alessio.

Jostin at 2007-11-19 12:12:44 -0500

Tabs tabs! Thanks in advance!

Jef at 2007-11-19 13:50:44 -0500

I also just wanted to weigh in to request the "view contact names a nicknames" feature be reinstated (if possible). And I'm also shocked that Apple didn't add a unified buddy list in Leopard, and it would be great, but I suspect it's hard or impossible. Thanks for an incredibly useful tool!

Andrew at 2007-11-19 16:03:54 -0500

Ability to hide status messages. Please.

Charles Fultz at 2007-11-20 14:19:38 -0500

I'm not quite sure what I'm doing wrong, but I can't get the Chax tab in iChat preferences. I've installed, reinstalled, and even copied the Chax folder from /Library/InputManagers to ~/Library/InputManagers... No love. I also backed up my preference plist files, that didn't help. Any advice? Oh, this is using iChat 4.0 (601) with Mac OS X 10.5.1. Thanks

Daniel Bergey at 2007-11-20 15:20:21 -0500

Feature request, perhaps a bit more feasible than some: Is there a way for you to add an option to keep iChat from automatically switching between tabs when a contact says something in another open tab? Not sure if you have to click on the window or not to make this happen, but I've sent something to the wrong person a couple times because of this. Great work!

Avi Flax at 2007-11-20 16:35:18 -0500

Excellent - thanks!! Any chance that the "set status on screensaver" feature might make a reappearance at some point? I miss it!

nephraito at 2007-11-21 05:23:03 -0500

Thanx for your work! Chax greatly expands iChat functionality) If possible, could you add support of ICQ protocol authorization? Plzz!

meatleg at 2007-11-21 05:54:37 -0500

Still loving CHAX! not sure if this is a chax issue or not, but i cant assign my own sound events with chax now. it is odd. when i assign a song file (just a few seconds of a song) to play when a certain contact comes online, it wont play. if it is a premade apple sound then it is okay. i have a bunch of sounds in the sound folders but i cant play any of them now through ichat as an event..... strange. i will have to check back after i try uninstalling chax (briefly) to try it out that way

Russell at 2007-11-21 07:00:35 -0500

Meatleg: I read somewhere about system sounds now having an artificial limit in terms of length. So try making your song files progressively smaller (like 3 seconds) and see if that does it. Then see if you can find that arbitrary cutoff...

Mark Baxter at 2007-11-21 19:06:22 -0500

Charles, I have the exact same issue. I tried a beta version and now this version, I get nothing at all. I used Chax for ages with Tiger so I kno whow to install it ...

Eli at 2007-11-22 02:44:05 -0500

Thanks for the update. Is possible to make the tabs on the bottom again? maybe something like this for a pref pane: http://img516.imageshack.us/my.php?image=chaxreqfeaturetq9.png? Also, is chax still open source? I cannot seem to find 2.0's on your site. I am trying to build another input for iChat.... Thanks

Matt at 2007-11-22 21:10:11 -0500

I have Mac OS X 10.4.11, is there a version I can download that doesn't have installation problems and that isn't strictly for leopard?

meatleg at 2007-11-22 22:43:30 -0500

Russell, i tried a sound file of one second but that didnt work. this is not a chax issue though. it doesnt work even with chax uninstalled. ichat 4 doesnt want to use wav files that ichat 3 was using just fine. have tried a longer file after converting to an mp4 but that didnt help either....

meatleg at 2007-11-22 22:44:51 -0500

sorry, i meant have tried a longer file after converting to an aif but that didnt help either…. the sound is only about 5 seconds maybe ill have to try converting the one second files to aif.... what a pain...

Michael Teel at 2007-11-22 23:43:33 -0500

For some reason, the Stay on Top option is not available under the Window menu????

Dotcommer at 2007-11-23 04:02:58 -0500

Hey, I'm glad to see you're on top of things here and that there's a new version for leopard. One small request... bring back the feature to automatically hide ichat when not in use. I hate having the window clutter up my desktop when i'm not using it. ttyl, I need to go donate.

Zachary at 2007-11-23 14:19:12 -0500

OK, so I can download the dmg. and open it, but when I click to run the installer it pops into the dock then immediately leaves. Does this only run on leopard? The requirements does not say it does, but... Any ideas why it's not installing?

Matt at 2007-11-23 18:07:22 -0500

I'm still unclear on the nickname feature. How do I save a nickname for someone as opposed to first/last/AIM name? And can I toggle between them at any time? Thanks.

will at 2007-11-23 21:42:38 -0500

Hey, was glad to see the chax for leopard is finally up! I know it's not so easy, but if it were possible, I would love to see the feature that displayed the name of the contact a new message was from on the dock icon. Thanks for all the good work-it really does take the pain out of ichat.

Michael at 2007-11-24 00:12:27 -0500

So glad to see Chax continue. Feature Request: I'd like to be able to specify away messages on a per-contact basis. I never want to send an autoreply to Frank the LJ bot, but I may want to tell just my wife where I went, etc...

Dave at 2007-11-25 03:46:01 -0500

Glad to see this great app continued, but I would kill for auto accept to return for file transfers! Thanks.

Mike at 2007-11-26 03:34:44 -0500

Hey, I know people have already mentioned most of these, but I'd just like to throw in my votes as well. 1. Names of senders in the dock as opposed to number of unread messages 2. Option to auto-accept file transfers from people on your buddy list. 3. Ability to reposition the tab bar to the opposite side and keep it present even if only one chat is open

meatleg at 2007-11-26 12:06:43 -0500

Russel, u were right. i shortened that file to under three seconds (it was five) and it works fine. another ichat user says it is based on bit rate, but i havent figured that out yet. FEATURE REQ: during video chat, i dont get message alert sounds. can that be added? it isnt in the regular menu..... thanks!

Mark at 2007-11-27 15:09:11 -0500

@Alesssio, I agree. I'm sticking w/ Adium until I can combine users in iChat. I can't stand having multiple buddy lists. I really want to use iChat/Chax, but no combined buddies is a dealbreaker.

Mike at 2007-11-27 23:41:50 -0500

Now that I've had a chance to use iChat a bit more, I've thought of a few more things that would be handy. For some reason whenever I receive a video invitation, the system automatically unmutes my computer. This is frustrating when I'm in the library, and don't want any sound. Yes, I can use headphones or hit the mute button again, but it'd be nice if that didn't happen. Another new feature that annoys me is the fact that logs are grouped in folders by date. Not only does this make the log viewer not see them, but it makes quickly browsing the folder for an old chat much slower. If there was a way to keep iChat from categorizing them, that'd be great. Thanks for your help and support!

JT Lee at 2007-12-01 03:26:08 -0500

Hi, I like the program! I've made a Simplified Chinese localization for it, if need, feel free contact me!

Anonym at 2007-12-02 17:07:47 -0500

I would like to have the ability to get ICQ working properly in iChat. would be awesome if you could do that !!! I love your smart little program :)

Richard. at 2007-12-02 20:22:55 -0500

Great job! Keep up the good work. ichat is driving me crazy with these side tabs. I can't wait till you fix Apple's mistakes... YOU ARE A GOD!

Chelsey at 2007-12-03 11:32:07 -0500

Hi, I was wondering if you could make it possible to: -MERGE Yahoo and AIM/ICHAT. -Tabs on the bottom. -The ability to upload an entire group of screen names from the address book at one time. -MERGE all accounts into one window. Thank you!!! CHAX rocks! -Chelsey

Ryan at 2007-12-03 19:20:44 -0500

I am having the same problem in 10.5.1 that many others are as well- it will not show up in the preferences menu- as if it has not been installed at all. Can you perhaps direct us to the place(s) to drop the installer package contents manually? thanks for this great App!

Michael at 2007-12-04 04:41:42 -0500

Hi, I was wondering why you guys got rid of tabbed im's? thats honestly the only reason i used chax until i found out about the other great stuff. please get back to me.

Michael at 2007-12-04 04:43:23 -0500

Oh yea and I also get this message when opening iChat. "The file "Activity.chaxActivity" could not be opened because it is not in the right format. Once again, please get back to me. Thanks in advance

ljun at 2007-12-04 17:06:28 -0500

SUGGESTION :) Have an option to "remove from file transfers window when complete"..... after you transfer files via iChat, it leaves the file in the file transfers window. It would be great to have an option to clear this out like Safari can do with downloads :)

Alexander Wehr at 2007-12-04 18:34:31 -0500

I didn't find an email anywhere and i dont blame you, but I want to request an enhancement to this brilliant package. I regularly keep 2 computers simultaneously connected to aim, and get continuously spammed by aolsystemmsg. I'd like to be able to block that client side since server side doesn't let me. pretty please? : )

David G at 2007-12-05 01:02:27 -0500

I also have this error message every time I start iChat: “The file “Activity.chaxActivity” could not be opened because it is not in the right format." Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

J.Kent.R at 2007-12-05 12:58:15 -0500

Thanks for making Chax for the new iChat in Leopard. I did notice lots of features have been removed from it, my guess is because Apple implemented many of them straight up into the new iChat. There is one feature that I relied on at my work that you removed and I can't seem to find if Apple has implemented it or not. The warning popup if I choose to close iChat and I have open chats up. Can't tell you how many times that has saved my butt from closing iChat and losing valuable info from a discussion with a client. The 'save chats' setting in iChat isn't an option to me because I don't want to save ALL my chats, just the important ones with clients. So I choose to manually save them before I close iChat, thus the need for that warning prompt when I automatically do the apple-q to quit. Please look into bringing back that feature? I also did prefer having the tabs of multiple conversations at the bottom of the main chat window. My horizontal retail space is limited. But this one is a not a big deal at. Again, kudos for caring to add needed features to iChat!

Dave at 2007-12-06 13:03:04 -0500

I also would like the AUTOHIDE feature to return. I miss having iChat completely vanish just by clicking on the desktop. Thanks, you're a genius!